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WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)
Autograph letter signed (‘Oscar Wilde’) to Miss [Blanche] Medhurst, 16 Tite Street, n.d. [c.1888].
Four pages, 167 x 122mm, bifolium.
‘The misery of children is a modern thing entirely’: on classical and Christian views of children – and commissioning an article about the Mormons. Wilde praises Medhurst’s article (‘it deals with a problem that confronts us every day’) and proposes to ‘use it in an early number’. He comments however, ‘I think, if you will allow me to say so, that it is hardly accurate to say that the care of children was due to Christianity: the Greeks and Romans were distinguished for their love of children: it is one of the special marks of their civilization – In fact the misery of children is a modern thing entirely, and due to economic causes such as over-population, and over-production’. Wilde encourages Medhurst to write again on the Mormons – ‘you know them so well that it will be easy to give different subject matter’: he suggests an illustrated article of 3,000 words.
Blanche Medhurst’s article on ‘Playgrounds and Open Spaces’ appeared in The Woman’s World in 1888: it opened with the proposition that ‘ignorance, contempt and indifference’ to children characterised pre-Christian societies. Wilde was editor of The Lady’s World, which he renamed The Woman’s World, from 1887 to 1889.